The menu above
exemplifies Mario Borgoni's typical Liberty graphics at their very
best.

The poster
opposite, for a brand of beer, shows Borgoni's sense of proportion
and easy rendering of the human form. It is said to be his best
such work.

Art Nouveau in its graphic
form was introduced to Italy in 1895, where it became known as Liberty
Style (after the name of the London departmental store famed for its contemporary
designs).

Mario
Borgoni, a young Italian artist who had been born in 1869 in Pesaro (on
the eastern coast of Italy) and studied at the Neapolitan Art Institute,
where he later taught Ornament for many years, was an early practitioner
of the fresh new style. As his pairs at the then revolutionary Italian
Liberty Movement he had such gifted graphic artists as Giovanni Mataloni
and, especially, the German immigrant Adolfo Hohenstein.

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Above, Borgoni
graphics with the typical two-plane image. The representation of
boats in the water is one of the artist's most recurring themes.

Below, Mario
Borgoni's monogram.The position of the arabesque is variable.

Around 1900 he started freelancing
for the Neapolitan printer Richter & C, becoming its artistic director
around 1906. In his posters for Richter, Borgoni often used a particular
Liberty design solution by which he separated the image in two parts:
i) a sort of dark cursive frame in the foreground, that often included
the lettering and, at times, an observer; and ii) a scene as viewed from
the window thus formed.

That style, as applied to hotel
labels by him or other artists under his direction, became a sort of trademark
of Richter & C that was widely imitated and upon which rested the company's
worldwide success as a supplier of labels to the hotel trade.

Mario Borgoni made a career
as a bona-fide artist and painter-decorator, but experts say that his
art lacks depth. Whatever they may mean by that, it is undeniable that
he was a superior draughtsman of the human figure and is justly remembered
for his sensuous treatment of women in some of his best poster work. He
has probably designed many labels early in his career but soon he concentrated
on posters, some of which were reduced for use as labels. These often
carry his monogram (the letters "Mbi" in a circle).

The image above
(click it) may well represent one of the earliest examples of Mario
Borgoni's style in hotel labels. The characteristic window is present
but the proper way to represent the sea at this small scale had
not been properly worked out yet. The varnish was applied manually.Unsigned,
early 1900s

The label below,
unsigned but certainly by M.Borgoni, illustrates his fully developed
style, up to the complex treatment of the sky.

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This label for
a Spanish hotel (click it for a larger view) demonstrates Borgoni's
versatility. His simplified rendering of the busy Rambla, the contrast
of colors and the effective lettering combine with quite amazing results.

There is some indication that,
non-withstanding his talent, Borgoni did not consider himself a true artist,
possibly because so much of his work was graphic: in 1916, when Enrico
Gianelli did a compilation of biographical notes on Neapolitan artists,
Borgoni left unanswered a request for data on himself, which Gianelli
attributed to an excess of modesty but more likely stemmed from a lack
of self esteem for his own work.

Another clue to his feelings
can be found in the fact that, unlike other artists, he often did not
sign his poster work. It is likely that his few known signed labels were
originally designed as posters and then reduced for use as labels.

A Borgoni label
printed after a poster by the 3-color process.

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In 1930 Borgoni left Italy
for the United States where (at 61!) he started a new career as publicity
and fashion illustrator. He returned in 1936 to die in Naples, where he
had worked for most of his life.

Borgoni's main contributions
to hotel label art were the double-plane style, the elegant Liberty lettering
and his "degradee" treatment of the early morning or evening
skies. The proper lithographic rendering of his reds or oranges softly
fading into yellows requires a high level of workmanship and its widespread
use in hotel labels is characteristic of Richter alone.

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One of the
most endearing and easily recognizable aspects of Mario Borgoni's
superb designs was his treatment of the early morning or late afternoon
skies, often with a moon, as exemplified by the label above, lithographically
printed after a poster, around 1912; and by the label below.

The Hotel
Cristina opened for the 1929 Exhibition in Seville and this was
its second label. Albeit unsigned, Borgoni's style is unmistakable
and shines through at a time when Richter's new designs were a pale
makeshift of the marvelous labels of 20 years before. This may well
have been Borgoni's very last label for Richter.

Mario Borgoni was and remained
primarily a poster artist. The fact that most (if not all) of his
known (signed) labels are scaled-down posters is apparent: Borgoni's treatment
of detail and light in the large lithographic posters is often impossible
to render accurately, by the same technique, at the reduced scale of a
label. So, several of his labels were either reproduced photographically
from posters and printed by the 3-color process (which lowers considerably
their interest and value), or else they were lithographed at the cost
of a noticeable loss in graphic quality. For labels printed by the 3-color
process, examine that of the Nettuno Hotel in Pisa (above, far right)
and that of the National Hotel at the top right side. Compare this label
with the same design on a later lithography.

Yet his influence was decisive
at the onset of the First Golden Age of hotel labels. His style was the
artistic pillar of Richter's success, and the ubiquity of Richter's labels
made of Borgoni's style the standard by which all others would be measured.

Borgoni himself never adapted
to the modernistic deco trends and Richter was at a stylistic dead-end
by the time he left. But even so, he remains the most influential hotel
label artist. Actually, the only one without whom the history of this
field would certainly have been different.

Above, label
photographically reproduced from a Borgoni poster and, below, later
lithography of the same design. Notice the limitations imposed by
the lithographic process.